Sobrassada is a raw, cured

Curing (food preservation)

Curing refers to various food preservation and flavoring processes, especially of meat or fish, by the addition of a combination of salt, nitrates, nitrite or sugar. Many curing processes also involve smoking, the process of flavoring, or cooking...

 sausage

Sausage

A sausage is a food usually made from ground meat , mixed with salt, herbs, and other spices, although vegetarian sausages are available. The word sausage is derived from Old French saussiche, from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted.Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made...

 from the Balearic Islands

Balearic Islands

The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.The four largest islands are: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain with Palma as the capital...

 made with ground pork

Pork

Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....

, paprika

Paprika

Paprika is a spice made from the grinding of dried fruits of Capsicum annuum . In many European languages, the word paprika refers to bell peppers themselves. The seasoning is used in many cuisines to add color and flavor to dishes. Paprika can range from mild to hot...

 and salt and other spice

Spice

A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...

s. Sobrassada, along with botifarró

Botifarra

Botifarra is a type of sausage and one of the most important dishes of the Catalan cuisine.It comes in different versions, some of the most representative are:...

 are traditional Majorcan sausage meat products prepared in the laborious but festive rites that still mark the autumn and winter pig slaughter

Pig slaughter

Pig slaughter is the work of slaughtering domestic pigs which is both a common economic activity as well as a traditional feast in some European countries.-Agriculture:...

 in Majorca. The chemical principle that makes sobrassada is the dehydration of meat under certain weather conditions (high humidity and mild cold) which are typical of the late Majorcan autumn.

Ingredients and varieties

Sobrassada is made with a choice of pork loin, pork bacon (locally called xuia), minced and mixed with paprika, salt and black pepper at the ends (to deter insects). Some makers also add cayenne pepper to the mixture and market it as coent, hot. Then the mixture is put into a pork intestine, and hung from a pole for some weeks until it is cured. The string which is tied around the intestine can be used to differentiate between the hot and dolç (literally "sweet", though in this case meaning "not spicy") varieties, the red or red and white string being the hot one.

Small, thin sobrassadas are called llonganissa, and are made from the small intestine. Bigger and thicker ones are called cular or pultrums, and the largest type are huge pork bladders

Pig bladder

Pig bladder is the bladder of a domestic pig, similar to the human urinary bladder. Today, this hollow organ has various applications in medicine, and in traditional cuisines and customs...

 called bufetes or bisbe (bishop). Thicker varieties have larger curation terms, allowing spreading its consumption over the year (thinner during winter, thicker during summer-autumn).

Sobrassada outside the Balearic islands

Four geographical areas in the Mediterranean, apart from the Balearic islands, have close links to sobrassada for different reasons:

1.- In colonial Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

, sobrassada was part of the pied-noir

Pied-noir

Pied-Noir , plural Pieds-Noirs, pronounced , is a term referring to French citizens of various origins who lived in French Algeria before independence....

 cuisine and extremely popular. The French version was named soubressade. Upon the independence and re-islamisation of the country this pork product became less and less important and can today only be found in continental France in butcher shops run by pied-noirs.

2.- In Catalonia

Catalonia

Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

, due to cultural links with the Balearic islands, sobrassada is sometimes found together with other native pork products. The eastern Pyrenees are known for a mountain version of sobrassada.

3.- The village of Tàrbena

Tàrbena

Tàrbena is a municipality in the comarca of Marina Baixa, Alicante, Valencia, Spain....

, in the province of Alicante

Alicante (province)

Alicante or Alacant is a province of eastern Spain, in the southern part of the Valencian Community. It is bordered by the provinces of Murcia on the southwest, Albacete on the west, Valencia on the north, and the Mediterranean Sea on the east...

, was re-populated after the expulsion of the Moriscos

Expulsion of the Moriscos

On April 9, 1609, King Philip III of Spain decreed the Expulsion of the Moriscos . The Moriscos were the descendants of the Muslim population that converted to Christianity under threat of exile from Ferdinand and Isabella in 1502...

 with colonists from Majorca who brought along several traditions from the island, including their own variant of the Catalan language

Catalan language

Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

 and foods such as the sobrasada, which is still being made there in the same way.

4.- In the island of Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

, either a predecessor or a contemporary product is found under the name soppressata at least since the 15th century. There is debate over exactly where the product originated.

Botifarró and other Majorcan sausages

Botifarró is a pork intestine filled with coarsely ground pork cuts, including liver, and spiced with salt, pepper and aniseed, which gives this sausage its peculiar flavor. Then the sausages are boiled, and they are consumed fresh. Botifarró is typical in Majorca but very similar varieties can be found in the Tarragona

Tarragona (province)

Tarragona is a province of eastern Spain, in the southern part of the autonomous community of Catalonia. It is bordered by the provinces of Castellón, Teruel, Zaragoza, Lleida, Barcelona, and the Mediterranean Sea....

, Castellón

Castellón (province)

Castellón or Castelló is a province in the northern part of the Valencian Community, Spain. It is bordered by the provinces of Valencia to the south, Teruel to the west, Tarragona to the north, and by the Mediterranean Sea to the east. The western side of the province is in the mountainous...

, Valencia

Valencia (province)

Valencia or València is a province of Spain, in the central part of the Valencian Community.It is bordered by the provinces of Alicante, Albacete, Cuenca, Teruel, Castellón, and the Mediterranean Sea...

 and Alicante

Alicante (province)

Alicante or Alacant is a province of eastern Spain, in the southern part of the Valencian Community. It is bordered by the provinces of Murcia on the southwest, Albacete on the west, Valencia on the north, and the Mediterranean Sea on the east...

 provinces.

Short history of sobrassada and Majorcan penchant for pork

Other pork products typical from the cuisine of Mallorca are camaïot, veria negra and xuia (pancetta

Pancetta

Pancetta is Italian bacon, typically salt cured and seasoned with such spices as nutmeg, fennel, peppercorns, dried ground hot peppers and garlic, then dried for at least three months. Associated with Italy, pancetta varies by region. It is also produced broadly in Spain.-Styles:Pancetta can be...

).

After centuries of Muslim (non-pork) culture, Mallorca quickly returned to pork consumption in the Middle Age

Middle age

Middle age is the period of age beyond young adulthood but before the onset of old age. Various attempts have been made to define this age, which is around the third quarter of the average life span of human beings....

, with the key ingredient paprika

Paprika

Paprika is a spice made from the grinding of dried fruits of Capsicum annuum . In many European languages, the word paprika refers to bell peppers themselves. The seasoning is used in many cuisines to add color and flavor to dishes. Paprika can range from mild to hot...

 added after the discovery of America in the 15th century. Sobrasada is thought to have originated and expanded, as a culinary concept, in the Catalan-controlled Western Mediterranean (Sicily, Balearic Islands, Sardinia) after the 14th century, as different forms of the same product persist in this region still today.

In a traditional Mediterranean diet

Mediterranean diet

The Mediterranean diet is a modern nutritional recommendation inspired by the traditional dietary patterns of southern Italy, Crete and much of the rest of Greece in the 1960s....

, containing little meat, as Mallorca had until the 1950s, sobrassada and its affiliated pork sausages were usually the main and exclusive pork meat source for Majorcans. Larger meat cuts like pork or lamb roasts, pork steaks

Pork steak

Pork steaks are cut from the shoulder of the pig. This is the same cut of meat most commonly used for pulled pork, and can be quite tough without long cooking times due to the high amount of collagen in the meat...

or beef cuts were largely a festive dish, or restricted to the well-off. Even today dishes such as porcella rostida, a whole roasted suckling pig, are only served on special occasions.

External links

• http://www.sobrasadademallorca.org/ The regulatory board website
• http://www.spain.info/TourSpain/Gastronomia/Productos%20y%20Recetas/Productos/D/0/Sobrasada